A popular family doctor who has served the community for more than four decades will see his final patient next month.

Noel Pereira will retire after practising at the Mount Chambers Surgery in Coggeshall Road for 41 years.

The 69-year-old said he looks back fondly on his career and will miss the daily contact with patients, many of whom he has known all their lives.

He said: “In 1973 it was my first partnership in general practice and I was 27.

“When I started, apart from the general practice part of it, we were also doing other things.

“We did work at the Courtaulds Hospital and we had the maternity unit. At one time the GPs covered that as well.

“At that time the actual general practice work was quite hard, we did our own nights and weekends on call, but it wasn’t the same pressure that we experience today."

Mr Pereira is set to retire on April 1.